I met my best friend Jaime over thirty years ago on the first day of kindergarten! I had been worried about making new friends on my first day of school so I had asked my mother how I should make friends. She told me to simply be a friendly person and go up to other children saying, “Hi my name is Jennifer, do you want to be friends?”

Being five, I took her words very literally, and when I entered school on that first day of kindergarten, I approached a tiny fellow classmate with the longest hair I had ever seen and said those exact words my mother had instructed me to say in hopes she would be my new friend. It worked! My mom was right! Alli had to do to make friends was to be friendly and smile! Little did I know that introducing myself to this long haired little girl was the best thing I could have done! We became best friends immediately and still are to this very day!

I believe the reason Jaime and I are still best friends today despite living in separate states, is because we have always been there for one another. As children our relationship stayed strong because we always got along, liked similar things, yet we didn’t have the exact same personality. We were different just enough, that it allowed us to revel in each other’s uniqueness, bringing out the best in one another. Jaime is a talented artist, I can’t draw to save my life! I loved reading constantly, which has helped me to become a detailed writer. We both love animals, rainbows, dragonflies and butterflies, and taking photographs. As the years passed, our friendship moved beyond the realm of being best friends, and we became like family. We still refer to each other’s mothers as “mom #2”. We have never fought over anything, and continue to this day to discover new dynamics in our friendship.

Our friendship has been strengthened over the years due to a mutual respect for one another. We support each other in all we do, cheering each other on, applauding achievements accomplished, consoling the other when life throws us an unexpected curveball that results in sad outcomes, and even if we have been apart for long periods of time, we are able to pick up right where we last left off! We stay in touch through texts, use the various social media platforms to stay abreast of what is happening in each other’s lives, and take turns writing handwritten letters that we mail (so rare in this technology driven world) to each other. The reason we are able to still be best friends, despite living in separate states is we take the time to care about what is happening in each other’s lives! That is the key to keeping a lasting friendship going.

Some of you may know the rhyme “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the others gold”, well Jaime is my golden friend for life!

A perfect circle or “halo” rainbow with sun and rays in the dead center to enhance it!

Being one extremely interested in rainbows and their meanings, I had read some time ago that rainbow arcs we usually see in the sky are actually part of a rainbow. A rainbow is actually a circle! Well this was a new one on me! Then yesterday as I photographed the sun around noonish, I noticed rainbow colors slightly above the sun’s extended rays. I stepped back to attempt to capture it and that’s when I realized I was staring at a humongous circle rainbow with the sun dead in the center of it! I kept backing up trying to captured this rare phenomenon, for me at least it was, all the while staring awe- struck at the sheer size of it! It was directly over my house and backyard!

This shows the sheer size of the halorainbow before I started backing up to capture it all!

Later I went in to review my photos and was thrilled to have captured this magical work of nature fully in several photos. Being the type of person who has to know the meaning/symbolism behind occurrences, I looked up circle rainbows. I loved the name “halo” rainbow because it seems to symbolize angels and to me this halo rainbow symbolized the uniting of all the many people my families have lost coming together as one to tell me they are okay up there! It made my heart and soul feel warm and happy to make this connection.

I tried to capture different angles of the sun in the halo rainbow.

Now of course I know that these rare rainbows are created from ice crystals being hit by sunlight, but as I go out several times a day every day to photograph the natural world around me, why haven’t I seen one sooner? Why was it that when I was feeling extremely low in my life and had beseechingly been asking for a rainbow the day prior that all of a sudden out of the blue, I get to witness the most amazing type of rainbow imaginable? Someone up there knew I was in need of a special sign. This rainbow was it. I spent the rest of the day floating on air feeling so much better about life! I see this rainbow as a magnificent gift from above! Think what you will about its sudden appearance, but for me it came at a time I needed it the most!